If you want the ability to choose between audible and visible bell on a console basis, you can use two different terminal types for the linux console. You can name them, for example, console and console-vb. The console entry would be the original one, while the other could feature a visual bell string for the « bl » item. Thus you can change the behaviour of your bell on a console basis:

• With tcsh: « setenv TERM console-vb » to get a screen flash, and « setenv TERM console » to get the audible beep.
• With bash: « TERM=console-vb; export TERM » for the flash, and « TERM=console; export TERM » for the beep.

Note that the termcap format allows to define a terminal-type in terms of another, so you need to insert in the database only the differences. Refer to the manpages for more information.